The astounding lunacy of the criminal justice system in Jamaica, and the criminal loving judges who populate those courts were on full display this week.
The Court of Appeal has set aside the death sentence of 31-year-old Lennox Swaby and 29-year-old garbage truck driver Calvin Powell, who were convicted in 2009 of the murder of Manchester businessman Richard Lyn and his wife, Julia.The two have been sentenced to life imprisonment with an order that they must each serve 35 years before they can be eligible for parole. The sentences are to run from January 20, 2010.Prosecutors Claudette Thompson and Greg Walcolm, in arguing the appeal, had asked the court not to disturb the convictions because Justice Marva McIntosh’s summation to the jury could not be faulted.The court upheld the legal arguments.DEATH SENTENCE NOT WARRANTED
Defence lawyers Dr Randolph Williams and Elham Bogle had argued on appeal that the case did not merit the death sentence and the court agreed. The Crown led evidence at the trial in the Home Circuit Court that the couple were strangled between December 9 and 10, 2006, during a robbery at their home in Mandeville. Their bodies were later found at a dump site.In handing down its decision yesterday, the court paid tribute to all the parties involved in the investigation and trial of the matter. “The police obviously poured significant resources into this effort and worked diligently at identifying the perpetrators,” the court said.http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130706/news/news4.html
The fact is these demonic miscreants would never be executed as mandated by law.
Reason being , the Jamaican government is the biggest law-breaker in the country. With that said, I am absolutely flummoxed. If entering someone’s home, robbing and killing them, then discarding their bodies at a dump site, does not qualify for the death penalty, what the f*** does? These criminal loving judges simply do not get it .
Let me just hasten to say Justice Marva McIntosh is a fine and exemplary jurist. One of the best and more experienced in the country bar none. One of the biggest impediment to justice is higher court“s continually interfering with lower court’s decision. It brings the system into disrepute, creating the impression of corruption, and does not engender confidence in the lower courts or the system.
There is nothing here which says the decision of justice Macintosh was unlawful or improper, yet it seem the justices on the court of appeals have decided to use their positions to give favors to the defense team.
There was nothing in the decision as far as the report goes that suggest that the trial judge had erred or acted improperly.
To suggest that the way the Lyns were slaughtered did not rise to the level of what constitutes the death penalty is beyond lunacy. It flies in the face of the family of these two hard working people who were so brutally killed not because of anything they did. Not only is the Appeals court interference an affront to the family , it is an affront to the learned justice who presided over the trial. It is an affront to the investigative police team which worked assiduously to bring the murdering scums to justice. It is an affront to justice in general , giving the impression that the lower courts and judges are incompetent .
Above all, interfering with the trial court’s sentence without having reason to change the verdict brings the question of corruption into the discussion. Nobody wants to ask the question so I will, ” how much money is changing hands in these decisions withing the criminal justice system in Jamaica”? Judges are sworn to interpret the law, they are not the law, they are not a law onto themselves, more and more we see Jamaican judges injecting themselves into areas they have no place being, acting as legislators and in some cases as defense attorneys. Justice cannot be open to change because of connections between Judges and defense attorneys or worse the connected paying off judges to rule a certain way.
I have no evidence money is changing hands in these decisions, but I am absolutely confident connections are playing a part. If connections are having an influence in the way these cases are decided, what is to stop money from corroding the system? Judges who drink and socialize with their defense lawyer friends, cannot be allowed to use those friendships to influence how they rule. Justice is bigger than their little cliques and fraternities. This action of the court of appeals is one more in a litany of other decisions that we see which is causing chaos in the small nation of 2.7 million people.
Just this week a Police Detective was murdered walking toward his home Corporal Gassop was gunned down by criminals , The men who murdered Corporal Gassop were on murder charges, yet they were returned to the streets by the country’s activist judges who are above the laws. The result of their actions, one more dead cop.
This has got to stop, we simply cannot have judges returning accused murderers back onto the streets to kill citizens and police officers. Worse yet, when they are properly convicted these criminals loving jack-asses who parade as judges have no right returning them to the streets.